Monorail toy



June 25, 1940 J. .1. CLARK 2,205,941

MONORAIL TOY Filed Sept. 28,1958,

INVENT OR.

ATTORNEYS.

Patented June 25, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT :OFFlCE 1 Claim.

My invention relates to improvements in toys,

and more particularly to the type in which a small vehicle travels on amonorail. Preferably the vehicle represents flying things as airplanes,5 birds, butterflies, bat and bird men, Zeppelins,

etc.

In one form of the invention the track is made of string, cord, orflexible wire held in two substantially parallel strands, to form aclosed loop, by means of reinforcing rigid curved end members, thelatter being provided with suitable supports such as handles, by meansof which the flexible strands may be held under tension to keep themfrom sagging appreciably.

In another form the track is made of wire or other light weight materialof small cross section but stiff enough to maintain itself with outbeing held under tension.

In the drawing:

Fig. l is a perspective view of a monorail in the form of a closed loop;

Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a bottom view, on an enlarged scale, 5 of one of the rigidcurved ends;

Fig. 5 is a modification of the form shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 6 is an elevation of a pulley and bracket, comprising part of a toyvehicle; and

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of a toy Bat Man.

In Fig. 1, the monorail I is in the form of a loop or string or cord orother flexible material, and is provided with substantially rigid,curved reinforcements I l at each end of the loop which maintain saidends in semi-circular form. One 'form of reinforcement is shown in Figs.2,3 and 4 as a sheet of metal bent over on itself in an invertedU-shaped form so as to embrace the string ID somewhat like aclamp. Inother words, 40 a channel is formed through which the string may bethreaded. The metal reinforcement has a generally semi-circular form toprovide smoothly curved ends for the loop or track. As shown in Fig. 3,the parallel arms I 2 of the U-shaped member may be pressed together toclamp the string in place to hold it against slipping, or to clamp oneend of the string in case the two parallel strands are made of twosingle lengths of string.

The reinforcing members l are provided with supporting devices l3 whichmay be used as handles, which handles may in one form consist of a pieceof sheet material, curved as shown in Fig. 4, to fit into the bottom ofthe slot and either soldered in place, riveted or held frictionally bypressing the side walls l2 of the slot together. The curvature of thehandle stiffens it, particularly where it is made of sheet metal. Thehandles may be held in the hands, or one of them at least may be mountedon a fixed support. For

this purpose one handle may be offset as indicated at M at the left-handof the loop, so that as the vehicle travels around the semi-circular endof the track it will clear the support. Said handles or supportingbrackets may be provided also with openings I5 to enable them to benailed or screwed to a post, a tree, or other suitable support. It willbe understood, of course, that both handles may be provided with theoffset l4, if desired or, as shown at the right hand end, an eyelet l6may be provided, so that if the handle is hooked or tied to a fixedsupport it will have a tight swivel action, as hereinafter explained.

The vehicle may be constructed in various different forms, oneappropriate form being shown in part in Fig. 6, in which a small pulleyI1 is mounted in the upper end of a depending U- shaped support I8. Thetoy, such as representation of an airplane, bird, etc., may be cut outof paper or metal, and secured to the support I8 in any suitable manner,so as to simulate a flying insect I9, shown for example in Fig. 1, or avehicle in the form of an airplane (not shown) or a Bat Man as in Fig.'7. The arrangement is such that the center of gravity is below thestring or wire Ill, and the depending arms of the U- shaped member clearthe metal reinforcements H as the vehicle rounds the turns. Variousother forms of frames may be used to carry the device which representsthe flying object.

Where the handles are held each in one hand, they are held apart so asto maintain the flexible track Ill under tension, and by lowering oneend or the other of the track and tilting the same appropriately thevehicle may be caused to run around the loop in one direction or theother.

Instead of holding both handles in the hand, one handle may be tied orhooked to the end of a chair or other convenient object, while the otherend is raised or lowered to produce the necessary down grade to propelthe vehicle around the course. By using the eyelet l6 iii tying orhooking the device to the stationary object, the necessary swiveling ortilting of the track may be effected by manipulating the handle at thedistant end. In such case the U-shaped member l8 clears the eyelet,which is below the level of the track or monorail.

It is also evident that where one end of the monorail loop is secured toa fixed object, the

loop may be made almost indefinitely long, i. e., the track may extendacross the room or the length of the lawn, if the device is usedoutdoors. In Fig. 5 the ends of the loop may be assumed to be of thesame construction as those previously described, but the flexible cordor cords lfi cross each other, the handles being so held that one spanof the string is above the other. Thus the vehicles may travel on afigure 8 track.

Although one-wheel vehicles are preferable, it is apparent that anadditional wheel or wheels may be used, if desired. However, the lightweight of the vehicle is one of the features of

